Category: Sociology of Media & Communication

Gender & Sexuality / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Queer Politics as Radical Democratic Citizenship?

nmccoy1 This week the California Supreme Court upheld the ban on same-sex marriage (see article below).  This ruling has reignited political, ideological, and religious disputes over the meaning of marriage.  Much less discussed in the media is the tension between movements based on achieving same-sex marriage (typically lesbian and gay politics) and movements of queer politics.  While there are certainly overlaps between these identity-driven positions, queer politics tends to emphasize the need to challenge heteronormative norms and institutions as well...

Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Media & Communication

Facebook In Iran: Social Movements and Democracy

by NickieWild Although Iran has been known to censor internet sites based upon “moral” objections to content, political censorship is prevalent as well. However, Iranians account for over 50% of all internet users in the Middle East, with over a third of their population being connected. As in most other countries, the net is a youth-driven phenomenon, and the popularity of Facebook in Iran has grown accordingly. Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate challenger to the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Media & Communication

Smoking: Bad Habit? Or Socially Patterned?

by socanonymous A U.S. Federal Appeals court recently upheld a 2006 landmark ruling that found top tobacco companies guilty of racketeering and fraud. The companies were found to have deceived the public about the dangers of smoking by using misleading labels such as “low tar”, “light”, and “mild”, on cigarette boxes. Manufacturers have since been required to change the way they market their cigarettes. The mass perception of smoking has gradually evolved from social acceptance to socially and morally unacceptable....

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Sniffing the City

by kiddingthecity What happens if some people decided to take control, in different ways, of their own images taken in public space by the millions of CCTV, by becoming conscientious actors and protagonists of the never ending film of the city (in London, there are more that half million of CCTV, 1 every 14 citizens)? What if some people started reclaiming, under the Data Protection Act, their own ‘performances’? To the extent, for instance, of making a music video, or...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Talent Agencies as Cultural Gatekeepers

by bmckernan A few weeks ago, two of the largest talent agencies in America – William Morris and Endeavor – announced plans to merge into one corporate entity. The new mega-agency, entitled William Morris Endeavor (WME) will rival the current industry leader Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in both size and scope, representing some of the wealthiest and most critically acclaimed American entertainment personalities. According to a recent NY Times article, the merger illustrates the current ambiguity and instability in the...

Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

The Mask is the Meaning

by kiddingthecity (on bank holiday weekend) Lately, I performed a browser’s search for “surgical mask”, and I came up with many (more than I expected) interesting fictions. For instance, I learned that in parts of Asia, especially in Japan, it is quite a common thing, and it makes you a good citizen, the preoccupation not to infect your neighbour if you ever feel poor. Or that surgical mask happens to be a designer’s stuff, a fashionable item, with a lot...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

The Marketing of Democracy

The Republican National Party is having what some may call an identity crisis.  Since the 2008 Presidential election campaigns, RNC strategists have been concerned with the direction, message, image, and marketing of their positions.  CNN reported on efforts at ‘re-branding’ the Republican image (see article below) through conferences and meetings among current and former Republican leaders.  Though is by no means a right-of-center-only phenomena, these attempts at marketing a political position are extremely worrying and mark the widening distance between...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication / Video Resources

Who Dreamed a Dream?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related] by linanne10 A recent youtube video of one of the performances in the largest British competition show, “Britain’s Got Talent,” have received incalculable viewing frequencies, and the number is still rising. Susan Boyle is the focus of this incident. Her mundane (and to some point, ludicrous) appearance, with her resonant and rich voice made her the new “instant celebrity” (according to a recent New York Times article). Drawing from Alexander’s idea on social performance, a successful performance needs to...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

What to Wear Today?

 by ishein1 Teenagers, especially during the years of economic prosperity, consistently cast their consumer vote at various clothing retail stores.  Marketers respond by relentlessly attempting to woo this coveted demographic.  Various stores, even ones owned by the same corporation, create varying images in order to create a perspective of “cool”.  “Coolness,” they believe, will induce the most profit.  In schools around the country teenagers define themselves by what they are wearing.  Brand names are signifiers that display identity.  An individual’s...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Ten Years Later: Three Academic Perspectives on the Columbine Massacre

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_lBgaUpmu4] by NickieWild A decade after teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students, one teacher, and wounded 23 at their high school in Colorado, academic writers in different fields still debate the source of their rage. Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters by Langman is a new book offering a psychological evaluation of the incident, which argues that sociocultural factors have been overemphasized. He writes that certain children are predisposed to violence through schizophrenia or...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Consuming in a Recession

by bmckernan While at the start of the economic downturn many media outlets were claiming the video game industry to be “recession proof,” recent sales figures seem to indicate that even an industry often characterized as “escapist” seems not to be fully impervious to financial realities. A recent article in the New York Times reports that sales figures for the game industry were down in March from the previous year, leading the article to conclude that the economic downturn may...

Class & Stratification / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

George Ritzer Guest Post: Are Today’s Globalized Cathedrals of Consumption Tomorrow’s Global Dinosaurs?

By: George Ritzer Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland A decade ago I wrote a book dealing with what I called the “cathedrals of consumption”. These are consumption settings that had, in the main, come into existence in the United States in the post-WWII era. Of particular interest were the most grandiose of these consumption settings including major indoor shopping malls, mega-malls (e.g. Mall of America), theme parks (especially Disneyland and Disney World), cruise ships, and above all the themed...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Welcome to the Real "Earth"

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T6APT6_w7I] linanne Mass media and technological advancement have created webs of images of reality, which often serve as resources for audiences and social actors to refer to while interpreting and understanding the world around them. Sociologist and cultural theorist, Jean Baudrillard understood such mass production, imitations and constant reproduction of images and goods as “second order” simulation. This second order simulation, according to Baudrillard, disturbs and blurs the line between the “real” and the “copy,” threatening to detach social actors...

Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

‘The Barbaric Theology of “Evil” Children’

by paulabowles British news has reported that two young brothers (aged 10 and 11) have been arrested in South Yorkshire for their alleged torture and assault of two younger boys. This case has once again raised the many emotive issues surrounding children who behave violently. Johann Hari of The Independent takes the opportunity to revisit the case of Mary Bell – as well as a brief reminder of the murder of James Bulger – concluding that ‘[t]he child who kills...

Class & Stratification / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Super-Anomie? U.S. Shooting Incidents in the Last 30 Days

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J22mLsZd2C8] by NickieWild As of today, according to msnbc.com, 43 people have died in the last 30 days in mass-shooting incidents across the U.S. There are several sociological theories that could potentially explain this. Messner and Rosenfeld’s “American Dream” structural strain theory posits that when there is a gap between what one wants to achieve and what seems possible, violence increases. For the immigrant who shot 13 people and himself in Binghamton, NY last week, there is evidence that points...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Visual Culture according to the Police

by kiddingthecity It sounds more and more likely that the Police have something to do with the death of a newsagent at the rally in the City of London. Many witnesses have come forward and most importantly there is The Picture: the evidence, the forensic clue, the probatio, the real stuff judges love and on which the surveillance culture of the streets in this country has been built upon. Mr Tomlinson is on the floor, surrounded by police officers, his...